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Troubleshooting the Auto Index

Sometimes, you may find that the auto index is not behaving as expected. Typically this will be due either to an inadequate hosting environment, or to pilot error. Here are some common conundrums, how to diagnose them, and what to do about them.

No thumbnail image

Using one of the iconic-style layouts, you may find that your index entry is missing a thumbnail image. This is probably because your image gallery's folder name one or more spaces. When it comes to the Web, spaces are bad and they don't belong in folder names.

For example, maybe you've named the folder “Trip to Italy”. Well, that's a problem. Try “Trip-to-Italy” instead, or “Trip_to_Italy”.

Space Invaders! Aaaah!

You were expecting a thumbnail, but all you got was a space invader. What the hell?! This guy shows up when the gallery can't find any thumbnails. This typically means you're missing a /thumbnails/ folder in your gallery and either … a) have not specified a custom thumbnail, or b) have specified a custom thumbnail, but have done so incorrectly so that the thumbnail cannot be found.

I specified a thumbnail, but thumbnails are still random

If you've specified a random thumbnail but still find that your index entry is drawing thumbnails at random, it means that your custom thumbnail path is invalid. The auto index cannot find your thumbnail, and as a fallback is pulling images at random from the /thumbnails/ folder. Correct your thumbnail location to correct the problem.

Blank Titles and/or Descriptions

Titles and descriptions disappear when they contain invalid characters. The most common culprit is the ampersand – & – so don't use it. If your title is “Italy & France”, try using “Italy and France” instead.

If you're not using ampersands, but still find your titles or descriptions vanishing, look for other oddball characters: punctuation, non-English letters, etc. and replace them with more vanilla content.

I see errors!!

If you're seeing errors, it probably means your host fails to meet our minimum system requirements of Linux OS, Apache server and PHP 5.2.6 or newer. The auto index contains a verification script for testing whether your host is capable of running the auto index. It's located at /resources/autoindex/verify.php. Run the script in your browser by prepending that path with the URI of your auto index.

If your host is inadequate, one or more of the checks will FAIL. Contact your host about resolving the matter. Depending on the problem, you may need to move to a new server or upgrade your PHP version. If the host cannot sort you out, consider moving to a better host; we trust Bluehost and recommend them fervently.

Debugging the auto index

Apart from the issues above, the auto index contains several debugging tools which may be accessed by URL. To use these tools, append the following commands to your auto index URL.

?array
Displays whatever information the auto index is getting from the autoindex.xml files in each of your image galleries.